California emissions waiver formally blocked

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Friday formally rejected California's bid for a waiver from U.S. law to set its own tailpipe emissions standard to reduce global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency released a regulatory notice signed by Administrator Stephen Johnson, canceling California's plans to impose a state law that would have forced automakers to reduce emissions by making cars that achieve sharply higher gas mileage beginning next year.

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Friday
formally rejected California's bid for a waiver from U.S. law
to set its own tailpipe emissions standard to reduce global
warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a regulatory
notice signed by Administrator Stephen Johnson, canceling
California's plans to impose a state law that would have forced
automakers to reduce emissions by making cars that achieve
sharply higher gas mileage beginning next year.

The decision also affects 18 other states that wanted to
adopt the measure.

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The announcement was expected. Johnson had announced in
December he would deny the waiver because the state's pollution
problems, in his view, did not merit special consideration.

"While I find that the conditions related to global climate
change in California are substantial, they are not sufficiently
different from conditions in the nation as a whole to justify
separate state standards," Johnson wrote.

He ruled against California even though internal documents
released by Congress in January revealed that EPA staff
concluded the agency would probably lose if the state went to
court. California sued in January.

Environmental groups said the formal denial, which outlined
the agency's legal argument, was inexplicable.

"Johnson's excuse that global warming is not unique to
California is both factually and legally wrong," said David
Doniger, policy director for the National Resources Defense
Council.

Doniger said no other state can claim the same "severe
impacts" from smog, wildfires, water supply problems, and
agricultural losses. "The combination and severity of these
impacts makes California's conditions compelling and
extraordinary," he said.

REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES

Environmental groups estimate the California standard, if
applied nationally, would reduce greenhouse gases from new
vehicles by 40 percent by 2020.

A new U.S. energy law, cited by Johnson in December as
adequate to address national pollution concerns, would cut
emissions by 31 percent over the same period, environmentalists
said. Both measures would cut pollution by sharply increasing
auto mileage targets.

Struggling U.S. auto manufacturers and overseas car
companies have fought the California proposal, saying it would
hurt their business, especially if adopted by other states.

Automakers said trying to meet both federal efficiency
standards and another, stricter standard adopted by states
would add huge production costs and increases prices.

The federal Clean Air Act allows California to enact
pollution laws that are stricter than U.S. government standards
in certain circumstances but only if the state receives EPA
clearance first.

California has been granted waivers in the past, but
Johnson said those were to address factors associated with
local or regional pollution problems.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said the EPA
decision would not stand up in court but would result in "more
delay in cleaning up our air and tackling the challenge of
global warming."